IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ecm/wc2000/0774.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Matching Model with Endogenous Skill Requirements

Author

Listed:
  • James Albrecht

    (Georgetown University)

  • Susan Vroman

    (Georgetown University)

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a labor market in which workers differ in their abilities and jobs differ in their skill requirements. We take the distribution of worker abilities as given (a fraction p of the workers is low-skill, a fraction 1-p is high-skill), but we model the determination of skill requirements by firms. High-skill jobs produce more output than low-skill jobs; however, high-skill jobs require high-skill workers and thus are more difficult to fill. We use a matching model together with a Nash bargaining approach to wage setting to determine the equilibrium mix of job types, along with the equilibrium relationship between worker/job characteristics and wages. We derive implications for the distributions of unemployment durations across workers and of vacancy durations across jobs. We use this model to examine the comparative static effects of a relative increase in the productivity of high-skill jobs (interpreted as "skill-biased technical change") and of changes in the mix of worker types in the labor force. Specifically, we examine how these changes affect aggregate unemployment and wage inequality via their effects on the equilibrium distribution of skill requirements. We also examine the effects of policy interventions such as unemployment compensation on the equilibrium.

Suggested Citation

  • James Albrecht & Susan Vroman, 2000. "A Matching Model with Endogenous Skill Requirements," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0774, Econometric Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecm:wc2000:0774
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://fmwww.bc.edu/RePEc/es2000/0774.pdf
    File Function: main text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Gautier, Pieter & J. van den Berg, Gerard & C. van Ours, Jan & Ridder, Geert, 2002. "Worker turnover at the firm level and crowding out of lower educated workers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 523-538, March.
    2. Wood, Adrian, 1995. "North-South Trade, Employment and Inequality: Changing Fortunes in a Skill-Driven World," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198290155.
    3. Mortensen, Dale T & Pissarides, Christopher A, 1999. "Unemployment Responses to 'Skill-Biased' Technology Shocks: The Role of Labour Market Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(455), pages 242-265, April.
    4. Pieter A. Gautier, 1999. "Unemployment and Search Externalities in a Model with Heterogeneous Jobs and Heterogeneous Workers," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 99-075/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Sicherman, Nachum, 1991. ""Overeducation" in the Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 101-122, April.
    6. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Patterns of Skill Premia," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 199-230.
    7. Eli Bekman & John Bound & Stephen Machin, 1998. "Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1245-1279.
    8. Paul R. Krugman, 1994. "Past and prospective causes of high unemployment," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 79(Q IV), pages 23-43.
    9. Daron Acemoglu, 1999. "Changes in Unemployment and Wage Inequality: An Alternative Theory and Some Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1259-1278, December.
    10. James Heckman & Lance Lochner & Christopher Taber, 1998. "Explaining Rising Wage Inequality: Explanations With A Dynamic General Equilibrium Model of Labor Earnings With Heterogeneous Agents," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 1(1), pages 1-58, January.
    11. Burdett, Kenneth & Mortensen, Dale T, 1998. "Wage Differentials, Employer Size, and Unemployment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(2), pages 257-273, May.
    12. Saint-Paul, Gilles, 1996. "Are the unemployed unemployable?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1501-1519, August.
    13. Mortensen, Dale & Pissarides, Christopher, 2011. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 1-19.
    14. Machin, Stephen & Manning, Alan, 1997. "Can supply create its own demand? Implications for rising skill differentials," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(3-5), pages 507-516, April.
    15. Mortensen, Dale T, 1982. "Property Rights and Efficiency in Mating, Racing, and Related Games," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 968-979, December.
    16. McKenna, C. J., 1996. "Education and the distribution of unemployment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 113-132, April.
    17. Machin, Stephen, 1996. "Wage Inequality in the UK," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 47-64, Spring.
    18. Diamond, Peter A, 1982. "Aggregate Demand Management in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 881-894, October.
    19. Vroman, Susan B., 1987. "Behavior of the firm in a market for heterogeneous labor," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 313-329, September.
    20. Paul Beaudry & David Green, 1998. "What is Driving US and Canadian Wages: Exogenous Technical Change or Endogenous Choice of Technique?," NBER Working Papers 6853, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Juan J. Dolado & Marcel Jansen & Juan F. Jimeno, 2009. "On‐the‐Job Search in a Matching Model with Heterogeneous Jobs and Workers," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(534), pages 200-228, January.
    2. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Ricardo Lagos, 2007. "A Model of Job and Worker Flows," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 770-819, October.
    3. Yashiv, Eran, 2007. "Labor search and matching in macroeconomics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1859-1895, November.
    4. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Cross-Country Inequality Trends," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 121-149, February.
    5. Batyra, Anna & Sneessens, Henri R., 2010. "Selective reductions in labor taxation: Labor market adjustments and macroeconomic performance," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 531-543, July.
    6. Juan J. Dolado & Marcel Jansen & Juan F. Jimeno, "undated". "A Matching Model of Crowding-Out and On-the-Job Search (with an application to Spain)," Working Papers 2002-16, FEDEA.
    7. David M. Arseneau & Brendan Epstein, 2014. "Offshoring, Mismatch, and Labor Market Outcomes," International Finance Discussion Papers 1118, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Olivier, Pierrard & Henri R., Sneessens, 2002. "Low-Skilled Unemployment, Biased Technological Shocks and Job Competition," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2003014, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 03 May 2002.
    9. Åsa Rosén & Etienne Wasmer, 2005. "Higher Education Levels, Firms’ Outside Options and the Wage Structure," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 19(4), pages 621-654, December.
    10. Morvay, Endre, 2012. "Munkapiac keresési súrlódásokkal [Job-seeking on the labour market, with frictions]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 139-163.
    11. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    12. Puhani, Patrick A., 2003. "A Test of the 'Krugman Hypothesis' for the United States, Britain, and Western Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-18, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Rogerson, Richard & Shimer, Robert, 2011. "Search in Macroeconomic Models of the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 7, pages Pages: 61, Elsevier.
    14. Paul Auerbach & Peter Skott, "undated". "Skill Asymmetries, Increasing Wage Inequality and Unemployment," Economics Working Papers 2000-18, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    15. Maryam Farboodi & Gregor Jarosch & Guido Menzio, 2016. "Intermediation as Rent Extraction," PIER Working Paper Archive 16-026, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 01 Dec 2016.
    16. Léné, Alexandre, 2011. "Occupational downgrading and bumping down: The combined effects of education and experience," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 257-269, April.
    17. Leonardi, Marco, 2002. "Product Demand Shifts and Wage Inequality," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2002 125, Royal Economic Society.
    18. Xavier Cuadras Morató & Xavier Mateos-Planas, 2006. "Wage Inequality and Unemployment with Overeducation," Working Papers 249, Barcelona School of Economics.
    19. Marimon, Ramon & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 1999. "Unemployment vs. Mismatch of Talents: Reconsidering Unemployment Benefits," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(455), pages 266-291, April.
    20. Xavier Cuadras Morató & Xavier Mateos Planas, 2003. "Are changes in education important for the wage premium and unemployment?," Economics Working Papers 707, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ecm:wc2000:0774. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essssea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.